Monthly Archives: November 2013

1718 – Swedish king Charles XII dies during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris (1783) — In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).

1786 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty.

1803 – In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer LouisianaTerritory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.

1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase.

1824 – First ground is broken at Allenburg for the building of the original WellandCanal.

1829 – FirstWellandCanal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Franklin — The Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).

1868 – The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden takes place in the King’s garden in Stockholm.

1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.

1953 – Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.

1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, an 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise, in the only unequivocally known case of a human being hit by a rock from space.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as its 3rd UN Secretary-General.

1964 – The University of Patras is inaugurated.

1966 – Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1967 – The People’s Republic of South Yemen becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1967 – The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who becomes its first Chairman later as the Head of state and Head of government after the 1971 Civil War.

1971 – Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates.

1972 – Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.

1981 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).

1872 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.

1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.

1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.

1890 – At West Point, New York, the United StatesNavalAcademy defeats the United StatesMilitaryAcademy 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game.

1893 – Ziqiang Institute, today known as WuhanUniversity, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty of China after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.

1910 – The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine.

1915 – Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.

1922 – Howard Carter opens the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public.

1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.

1934 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Detroit Lions 19-16 in the first nationally broadcast game.

1943 – The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country.

1944 – The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

1945 – The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.

1947 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).

1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.

1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.

1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.

1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing “use all necessary means to uphold and implement” United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 “to restore international peace and security” if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2005 – The new Croatian Communist Party (KPH) is founded in Vukovar.

2007 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.

2007 – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as south as Trinidad.

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1095 – On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.

1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag.

1520 – After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespere and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.

1660 – At GreshamCollege, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.

1729 – Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at FortRosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

1785 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.

1814 – The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

1964 – Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s call for “more flags” in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.

1975 – East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.

1975 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, the final two American soap operas that had resisted going to pre-taped broadcasts, air their last live episodes.

1979 – The Mount Erebus disaster: An Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.

1982 – Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.

1984 – Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

1987 – South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power.

1919 – Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity is founded in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

1924 – In New York City, the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

1934 – Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.

1940 – In Romania, the ruling party Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled King Carol II of Romania’s aides, including former minister Nicolae Iorga.

1940 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.

1942 – World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

1944 – World War II: An explosion at a RAF ammunition dump at Fauld, Staffordshire kills seventy people.

1954 – Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.

1963 – The Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention is signed at Strasbourg.

1964 – Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would “save humanity from the ultimate disaster.”

1965 – Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.

1971 – Mars 2 of the Soviet space program landed on Mars.

1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).

1975 – The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.

1978 – In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.

1909 – Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New York by 8 Jewish young men.

1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.

1918 – The Podgorica Assembly votes for “union of the people,” declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.

1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.

1922 – Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so but it was not widely distributed).

1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates the incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1942 – Holocaust: Shoah: 572 Norwegian Jews are deported to Auschwitz on the cargo vessel Donau. This was the first step on the journey to the death campAuschwitz. Altogether the total number of Jews deported from Norway on this trip was 767. 25 of the deported survived.

1942 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihac in northwestern Bosnia.

1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People’s Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and American forces (Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.

1965 – In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board, becoming the third country to enter outer space.

1968 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

1970 – In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1mm) of rain fall in a minute, the heaviest rainfall ever on record.

1977 – ‘Vrillon,’ claiming to be the representative of the ‘Ashtar Galactic Command’, takes over Britain’s Southern Television for six minutes at 5:12 PM.

1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the British Isles, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people perish in the mighty gale.

1758 – French and Indian War: British forces capture FortDuquesne from French control.

1758 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded.

1783 – American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1795 – Partitions of Poland: Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the last king of independent Poland, is forced to abdicate and is exiled to Russia.

1826 – The Greek frigate Hellasarrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy.

1839 – A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again). The storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster.

1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Missionary Ridge – At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.

1864 – American Civil War: A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.

1867 – Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.

1874 – The United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873.

1876 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife’s sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.

1905 – The Danish Prins Carl arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway.

1918 – Vojvodina, former Austro-Hungarian crownland, proclaims its secession from this state to join the Kingdom of Serbia.

1926 – The deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. November history strikes on Thanksgiving day. 27 twisters of great strength reported in the Midwest, including the strongest November tornado, an estimated F4, that devastates Heber Springs, Arkansas. 51 deaths in Arkansas alone, 76 deaths and over 400 injuries in all.

1936 – In Berlin, Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on what measures to take “to safeguard their common interests” in case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation.

1940 – First flight of the deHavilland mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.

1941 – Finland joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.

1943 – Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina was re-established at the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia.

1944 – World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth’s store in Deptford, United Kingdom, killing 160 shoppers.

1944 – World War II: Battle of Peleliu – At Peleliu, Palau, American forces led by the general officer William H. Rupertus defeat the Japanese army led by Colonel Kunio Nakagawa.

1947 – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

1950 – The “Storm of the Century”, a violent snowstorm, paralyzes the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, records 57 inches of snow. 323 people die due to the storm.

1950 – The People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces.

1952 – Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually becomes the longest continuously-running play in history.

1958 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French Community.

1960 – The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated.

1963 – President John F. Kennedy is buried at ArlingtonNationalCemetery.

2003 – The U.S. Court of Appeals (7thCir) issued its opinion in Assessment Technologies v. Wiredata, a copyright infringement case.

2005 – Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians. Maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, as well as the possible nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities and 2 million of its citizens by Soviet-controlled forces, are released.

2007 – The first European Parliament election and a referendum on changing the voting system (called by the President and declared invalid because of insufficient turnout) were held in Romania.

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380 – Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.

1190 – Isabella of Jerusalem marries Conrad of Montferrat at Acre, making him de jure King.

1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus, an event he had predicted.

1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania).

1859 – Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.

1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain – Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture LookoutMountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.

1898 – The International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists opens.

1904 – The first successful caterpillar track is made.

1917 – Nine police officers and one civilian are killed when a bomb explodes at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin police headquarters building.

1922 – Author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.

1941 – World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.

1943 – World War II: The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks with nearly 650 men killed.

1944 – World War II: Bombing of Tokyo – The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.

1947 – Red Scare: After the so-called Hollywood 10 refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, the United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of Congress against them.

1962 – The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.

1963 – Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically.

1965 – Joseph Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Congo and becomes President; he goes on to rule the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997.

1966 – A Bulgarian plane with 82 people on board crashes near Bratislava, Slovakia.

1966 – New York City experiences the smoggiest day in the city’s history.

1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D.B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with US$200,000 in ransom money – neither he nor the money have ever been found.

1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression.

1992 – In the People’s Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.

1993 – In Liverpool, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

2005 – Conservative leader Stephen Harper, the leader of the Official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament, introduces a motion of no confidence, which NDP leader Jack Layton seconds. The motion is passed on November 28 leading to the dissolution of the 38th Canadian Parliament.

Roman festivals – in the Byzantine empire the Brumalia (a wine festival) were celebrated from this day until the winter solstice

R.C. Saints – Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and other Vietnamese Martyrs

Feast Day of Saint Colman of Cloyne – Cobh, Ireland

Teacher’s Day in Turkey

Lachit Divas is observed on 24th November each year in Assam, India to commemorate the heroism of the Assamese General Lachit Borphukan and the victory of Assamese army over the Mughal army in the Battle of Saraighat in 1671.